Onycha
Animals in the Bible
The strombus mollusks are a type of sea creature something like snails, which live inside a single shell, usually spiral in structure. They have eyes set on the end of each of two stalks. Part of the mollusk extends from the shell and attaches itself to a rock or other flat surface. This is called the foot and is the means by which the mollusk moves. The foot has a nail or scale-like covering called the operculum, and when the mollusk withdraws into its shell this operculum acts as a lid, sealing the opening of the shell. It is this operculum that is thought to have been referred to by the Hebrew word shechelet.
In the Bible
The Hebrew and Greek words for it, and every verse where each is used
שְׁחֵלֶת shechelet · 1 verse
More about it
The Hebrew word refers to something that was used in the mixture of aromatic spices that made the incense. This ingredient is believed to have been the nail-like covering on the foot of a mollusk (that is, a boneless sea creature) of the strombus type. However, a few scholars suggest that it is a type of flower.
Also in Fish, frogs, and mollusks
Sources
Plants and Trees in the Bible, Animals in the Bible and Human-made Things in the Bible © United Bible Societies, 2025 (adapted from Each According to its Kind: Plants and Trees in the Bible by Robert Koops, All Creatures Great and Small: Living Things in the Bible by Edward R. Hope, and The Works of Their Hands: Man-made Things in the Bible by Ray Pritz), CC BY-SA 4.0; adapted for eRhema